jakorte's blog

Driving through the UM campus close to quittin’ time is always a challenge.

I don’t usually have to do it, but our campus driver was sick on Monday, so I had the pick-up route. You know how sometimes things happen so fast, that it always takes so much longer to relate them? Well, this is one of those stories.

I saw the situation coming, and came up with a few plans to deal with it in just matter of seconds. The Suburban was stuck in the left-hand lane behind a car making a left-hand turn. They were both at a complete stop. I figured he might try to bolt in front of me, but he didn’t. He didn’t creep up, or turn his front tires, or even take his foot off the brake. So, I kept my course in the right lane.

Just when my driver’s side door was at his right front bumper, the non-signal using and obviously, non-mirror-using driver, was apparently overcome with rush hour travel desperation, and finally decided to get in to my lane.

I swerved hard right, and somehow missed the very poor lane-change planner. This is when I wish we had access to other people’s radio frequencies. I would have tuned in to his station and asked him, “Was it worth scaring us, risking injuries and vehicle damage just to make it to the next light a few seconds quicker?�

I read a Reader’s Digest article a few years ago about a woman who died because she was trying to beat a light. The story gave statistics about how much time people really do, or actually don’t save by passing other drivers. I can't be sure I'm quoting exactly, but I think the average time "saved" was something miniscule like 15 to 30 seconds. It’s just not worth the risk.

Linda, who keeps me laughing, and was in the co-pilot’s seat, was not happy about the near miss. She felt cheated too because she had neither the time to use her famous finger-flying, “You should have stopped� hand-signal, or to open the window and scream “No brakes!� as we squeezed past the disaster that could have been.

We started giggling about other possible uses of the phrase, “No Brakes!� One of the more amusing ones was the idea of suddenly throwing our office door open, yelling “No Brakes!� into the hallway. We figured after that, we would just sit tight and see who, if anyone, stopped in to check on us.

That got me thinking. And thinking some more. See Faith: No Brakes

jak